econ252
ECON252 – Principles of Macroeconomics
Spring Semester, 2014
Instructor: Marcelo Castillo
Office: KRAN 515
Office Hours: Wednesday and Friday 5:00pm – 6:30 pm
Classroom: SMTH 118
Email: castill6@purdue.edu
Course Content
As many of you know, the economy has been experiencing significant turbulence and poor performance in recent years. The depressed economic climate has resulted in business failures, millions of unemployed workers, hundreds of billions in new government spending and money expansion, and a charged political landscape. It is quite an interesting time to study macroeconomics!
This principles level macroeconomics course begins with a foundation of microeconomic principles and the model of supply and demand. We then move to macroeconomic topics such as national income, saving and investment, prices and inflation, and government monetary and fiscal policy in response to business cycles. The topics and methods we cover in this class should give you a better understanding of what’s happening in the real world with budget deficits, the national debt, unemployment and government “stimulus” policies. It will also prepare you for other macroeconomic intensive upper level courses such as intermediate macroeconomics, money and banking, and economic development.
Course Goals My objective in this course is to lay out the fundamental theories and methodologies of macroeconomics to you. I will strive toward interactive lectures, including discussion and problems. I expect you to speak up and contribute to class discussions and to notify me (hopefully during class, but at least afterwards) if things aren’t clear. Homework sets and exams will reinforce and assess the learning process. Your objective should be to develop a sufficient understanding of these macroeconomic principles, and also the ability to apply this thinking to various problems, both familiar and unfamiliar. This course should prepare you to think like a junior
Spring Semester, 2014
Instructor: Marcelo Castillo
Office: KRAN 515
Office Hours: Wednesday and Friday 5:00pm – 6:30 pm
Classroom: SMTH 118
Email: castill6@purdue.edu
Course Content
As many of you know, the economy has been experiencing significant turbulence and poor performance in recent years. The depressed economic climate has resulted in business failures, millions of unemployed workers, hundreds of billions in new government spending and money expansion, and a charged political landscape. It is quite an interesting time to study macroeconomics!
This principles level macroeconomics course begins with a foundation of microeconomic principles and the model of supply and demand. We then move to macroeconomic topics such as national income, saving and investment, prices and inflation, and government monetary and fiscal policy in response to business cycles. The topics and methods we cover in this class should give you a better understanding of what’s happening in the real world with budget deficits, the national debt, unemployment and government “stimulus” policies. It will also prepare you for other macroeconomic intensive upper level courses such as intermediate macroeconomics, money and banking, and economic development.
Course Goals My objective in this course is to lay out the fundamental theories and methodologies of macroeconomics to you. I will strive toward interactive lectures, including discussion and problems. I expect you to speak up and contribute to class discussions and to notify me (hopefully during class, but at least afterwards) if things aren’t clear. Homework sets and exams will reinforce and assess the learning process. Your objective should be to develop a sufficient understanding of these macroeconomic principles, and also the ability to apply this thinking to various problems, both familiar and unfamiliar. This course should prepare you to think like a junior